Pilgrim [Hardcover]

Timothy Findley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 22, 1999

On April 15, 1912 -- ironically, the date of the sinking of the Titanic -- Pilgrim fails, once again, to commit suicide. His heart miraculously begins to beat five hours after he is found hanging from a tree. Admitted to the Burgholzi Psychiatric Clinic in Zurich by his dear friend Lady Sybil Quartermaine, Pilgrim -- at first, stubbornly mute -- begins a battle of psyche and soul with Carl Jung, self-professed mystical scientist of the unconscious and slave to his own sexual appetite.

Populated with a fascinating parade of historical characters, including Jung, Oscar Wilde, Leonardo da Vinci, Henry James, and Gertrude Stein, Pilgrim is a richly layered story of a man's search for his own destiny and an absorbing, fascinating novel that explores ageless questions about humanity and consciousness.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Timothy Findley's Pilgrim is the story of a man who can't die even though he tries over and over to kill himself. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, in 1912 he's placed in a Zurich clinic where Carl Gustav Jung is hard as work trying to determine the perimeter of the collective unconscious. For Jung, this man becomes an embodiment of the psyche's mystery. Claiming to have no past history but to have simply arrived one day at consciousness, Pilgrim lives in a limbo outside individuality and subjectivity. He's everyone and no one. Is he a messenger? Or is he a basket case? As the novel gathers momentum, we realize that Pilgrim is a character much like Virginia Woolf's Orlando, traversing gender and time, a witness. But whereas Woolf is a feverish and emotional writer, Findley is philosophical and dry, playful and slightly pretentious. Imagining conversations between Pilgrim and Henry James, Leonardo da Vinci, and Oscar Wilde, this novel is like a party full of beautiful guests. Or a safe train trip through an exotic landscape of consciousness where men use cologne that smells like "moss... lemons... ferns" and schizophrenics are elegant and well dressed, like the old countess who believes she lives on the moon and asks her doctor, "Is this a ballroom? Am I being courted?" --Emily White

From Publishers Weekly

In the early hours of April 17, 1912, two nights after the sinking of the Titanic, a man named Pilgrim, author of a renowned book on Leonardo da Vinci, steps into the garden of his London home and hangs himself. Amazingly, five hours later his heart starts beating again, and he revives. Findley (Headhunter; The Telling of Lies) is at his peak in this story of a man who cannot die, but has grown so weary and despairing of life that he longs only to escape it. Pilgrim, under the care of his wealthy friend Lady Sybil Quartermaine, is removed to the B?rgholzli Psychiatric Clinic in Z?rich, where Carl Jung, a principal doctor, is persuaded to take on his case. Is Pilgrim mad, or is Jung, struggling to find himself as a theorist and to sustain his uneasy marriage, the one who is deluded? Did Pilgrim dream of the fate of the Titanic victims, and is he dreaming now of the carnage of the coming world war? Did he, as his journals attest, know da Vinci, know St. Teresa of Avila, help build the great cathedral at Chartres? The story moves back and forth from Pilgrim's mind to Jung's, to Pilgrim's journals as they're being read by Emma JungAwho seems to understand Pilgrim's dilemma far better than her husband does. Ambitious doesn't half describe a novel that includes an eyewitness account of the death of Hector in the Trojan War, appearances by Henry James and Oscar Wilde, and both the woman who posed for the Mona Lisa and her reincarnated self as the man who's just stolen it from the Louvre. Aimed at the general reader, not James scholars, Jungians or fans of Virginia Woolf's similarly premised Orlando, this is a polished and exhilarating entertainment that's challenging, mystifying and expertly crafted, even if its kaleidoscopic perspective is no longer entirely fresh. 4-city author tour. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1st US edition (December 22, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006019197X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060191979
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,750,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If It Doesn't Reach Best Seller Lists Blame The Book Jacket, February 17, 2000

By 

taking a rest - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Pilgrim (Hardcover)

"The Pilgrim" is my introduction to the work of Mr. Timothy Findley. One of the joys of reading is when the reader finds a new author, at least new for the reader, and a whole new body of work can be read and looked forward to.

My Reason for the Review's Title is this, I picked up, read, and then put this book back many times before finally purchasing it. What gave me pause was the idea that without a strong working knowledge of Carl Jung this book could not be enjoyed or understood. Happily I was wrong.

If your knowledge of Carl Jung is nearly nil, you will still love this book. If you are extremely knowledgeable about him, this will add to or subtract from the book as you judge how he is portrayed. In either instance, the book can be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates a great story begat by a wordsmith, a master craftsman. The book is not a "light" read, but neither is it a daunting one. It requires a bit of thought, which only adds to the experience.

The following is not in the book, but I kept this in mind when reading and found it helpful. Whether it brought me where the Author intended I couldn't say, but for me it worked.

"Time" is literally meaningless as it is a construct of Man. It is a reference point that was created for our convenience. What our watches and calendars tell us is only what we have programmed them to say, and we have changed the guidelines several times throughout Human History.

I offer the thought only as I found it helpful, I could be way off base.

In any event, a splendid story, a gifted Author, a book you will enjoy, just skip the book jacket.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Elegant Creation, January 18, 2000

By 

William Kowalski (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pilgrim (Hardcover)

This is my first Findley novel, but it interested me enough to go back and read his earlier works. Findley is, quite simply, a masterful writer. The premise of this novel is unusual in modern fiction, and Pilgrim's immortality is not always presented quite convincingly enough for my taste. It was hard at first to figure out whether he kept getting reincarnated into different bodies or whether he was the same person each time. This is fine--but it was also hard to figure out whether Findley WANTED that to be hard to figure out, if you follow me, and that detracted from my overall enjoyment of the story. It did not make sense to me that a man with a different body every lifetime would be so eager to die.

This is the only major drawback, however. Ordinarily I do not enjoy fiction with real-life personalities as characters, but Findley's portrayal of C.G. Jung is very well done and historically accurate--I now feel I know something about Jung as a fallible human. Also, Findley's historical settings are vivid and real. This book commanded my attention from beginning to end--a rare occurrence, since I consider myself to be an extremely demanding reader.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pilgrim's Progress, March 18, 2000

By 

Leonard P. Bazelak - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pilgrim (Hardcover)

I have just completed Mr Findley's Pilgrim and was glad to see that others who read the book were as fascinated as I was by it. It was the first book of his I have read and I intend to read others. I did not know much about Jung except of course about his theory of the collective unconscious. In many respects as portrayed by the author, his life was more depressing the Pilgrim's. I did not find his character very attractive and was put off by his adultery, his treatment of his wife, Emma, and his over-possessive attitude towards his patients. There were really only a few likeable and admirable characters in the novel: Mr Forester, Pilgrim's valet, Emma, Lady Quartermain, and the "moon lady." The author's writing style is complex, sophisticated, graphic, and interesting. So much attention given to Jung, however, detracted from the book's overall quality. To me, he was a sad but obnoxious character. In conclusion, though, it was a book I was glad I read and my hats off the the author for his research, his topic, and his intelligent style of writing.